Fishing banned in polluted Sydney Harbour

0 Comments | AFP, January, 2006

SYDNEY (AFP) — Commercial fishing has been banned in Sydney's famously beautiful harbour due to dangerous levels of poisonous dioxin being found in prawns and fish.

The dioxin, which can cause cancer and birth defects, was a hangover from past industrial waste, said New South Wales Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald, announcing a three-month ban.

Levels of dioxin found in the fish had not dramatically increased from those found a decade ago, but international standards relating to dioxins had changed, he said.

"The level of dioxin in the fish from the tests that I've seen in 1996 and now have not significantly changed," he told reporters.

"What has changed is the international assessment of the levels of risk of dioxin, so it's got a higher...